Study Organisms

For the last several years the Bertram lab has been using field crickets as our model organism. Males compete for access to calling sites and then signal acoustically to attract potential mates. Males exhibit variation in many aspects of their signalling components including: sound pressure level, duration, pulse rate, number of pulses per chirp, inter-chirp intervals, percentage of missed pulses, carrier frequency, and time spent signalling each night. Female crickets discriminate between potential mates based on several signalling components and nightly signalling time, suggesting the potential for sexual selection to influence these mating signals.

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Ormia ochracea: Female parasitoid flies acoustically stalk and lay their larvae on and around the signalling cricket. The larvae burrow inside the cricket. A week later the larval fly burrows out of the host, killing the cricket. Acoustic signalling is, therefore, beneficial as it enhances mating success, and yet costly as it increases the chances of dying young.